OC&C Associate Partner Tom Gladstone has worked on two Impetus projects. Here he recounts the highlights and challenges of his experience.
What is your "day job"?
I am an associate partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, working
in the consumer sector. Most of my projects are working with
retailers, tackling key commercial challenges they engage us
on.
What are the skills you need to do your
job?
It is quite an interesting mix. Partly, it is analytical skills;
gathering evidence and interpreting data to come up with insights
and recommendations that support our clients in making key
commercial decisions. Secondly, it's a set of softer skills around
communications - around presenting our insight and recommendations
clearly, both in writing and verbally, so clients get clear,
pragmatic advice. Finally it's around working with people - both
your own team and with clients.
What did you do in your work with
Impetus?
I have worked on a couple of projects with Impetus. In the
first one of these, Impetus was looking at getting involved with a
charity called Leap Confronting Conflict, and they asked us to do
some due diligence to help them figure out if that was a charity
they should invest in (which turned into a broader piece of work
looking at Leap's strategic focus).
In terms of the process we followed, it was similar in many ways to how we work on our commercial projects. We ran a wide interview programme, with organisations that Leap has worked with, experts within that sector, and internally within Leap. We looked at what Leap's competitors were doing, and how Leap's activities compared to them in reach, scope and quality. We also did some analysis of the programs that Leap had been running, to look at how much impact the various Leap programmes were having and what was being spent on them. Finally, we looked at how Leap ran internally and implications for what would be easy or difficult to scale up.
The first thing that came out of that was that Leap was clearly recognised as a leader in their field and had something really valuable to offer the community. The other major issue was that they would benefit from some help with their strategy. At the time, Leap had six or seven areas in which they were working, and we recommended they should focus on two or three areas, where they would add more value. We went through the process and identified those two or three areas where they would get the bigger bang for their buck, and which were more scalable.
In what ways was your work with Impetus different to
what you do in your "day job"?
While the process we went through took a lot from the work
that we would do in the commercial sector, because it is a charity
it also forced us to look at some things in a very different
way.
In the social sector, the decisions are not ultimately about how you can make more money, but how you can help more people and how you can have a greater social impact. This means that the criteria by which you judge success are very different - and much less tangible to measure than how much money an organisation is generating.
There is also a softer element that you need to be aware of when working in the voluntary sector, and it is the fact that people have invested a lot of their time - sometimes their lives in fact - in these organisations. You have to recognise why people work and what motivates them. We need to listen carefully and really understand the context, the environment in which they are working, to understand their views on the issues and what is going on, particularly at the grass roots level.
Have you personally ever worked with a charity
before?
No, this was my first time.
Were you part of a team?
Yes, we had a team of four or five OC&C consultants,
some working full-time on this project, for four weeks. We were
structured pretty much in a similar way to how we would do it for
one of our customers. I was the team manager, so I was
dealing with Leap on a day-to-day basis.
In the end you concluded that Impetus should invest in
Leap?
Yes.
How was the experience for you?
I really enjoyed it! It was a fantastic learning
experience getting involved in a sector where you have not worked
before. From a selfish perspective, it was a good feeling
helping a charity, especially because I was helping a charity in
the way where I could add most value. I could have offered my time
to paint some walls, I could have made a donation, but in many ways
what made it fun for me was the feeling that I had a bigger impact
by applying what I learnt from my day job - giving them the
strategic advice to help them be more focused and to make the most
of their future opportunities. There is a real satisfaction of
making a contribution in the best possible way.
Have you stayed in touch with
Leap?
Yes. Three years later, we did a follow up piece of work with
Impetus on Leap, and it was fantastic to see the team
again and the progress of the organisation. The amount of people
they are now helping is phenomenal. They have grown three or four
times from when we worked with them. They were a leader in the
sector the first time we looked at them; when we met them the
second time around three years later, they weren't just seen as
leaders but were now seen as an authority in their area. It is
really pleasing to see how far they have come, and know that the
help we gave them was useful. It is very satisfying and reinforces
the fact that the time we spent working with Impetus gives real
benefits on the ground.
What do you like about working with
Impetus?
All Impetus projects are fantastic things to do. They give
people a chance to make their contribution more effectively. It
gives people the chance to learn. We make sure the Impetus
projects become a platform for our people to advance. It gives them
more exposure, helps them develop leadership skills. These
are the sort of projects that are the reason why people join us.
People are looking for this kind of thing.
What I like about Impetus is that they try to go to places where other people might not like to go. Credit to Impetus for selecting charities dealing with some of the really hard-to-crack issues in society that can get overlooked. What they do is absolutely critical.
The other thing that is very important is their multiplier effect. What Impetus does is to help charities transform themselves. Impetus in general makes you feel that your advice as a consultant is helping an organisation make a step change rather than just incremental improvements. Seeing commercial organisations change is fulfilling, but when it is a charitable organisation and you can see the impact that it has on the ground, it feels even better.
Everybody participating in these projects found it worthwhile. Working with Impetus was a really good experience and I hope there are many more projects to come.
Read more about Impetus corporate partners and how ISIS employee James Titmuss worked with Street League.
There has never been a greater need for giving than now. I would urge donors to be strategic in their giving, and look for opportunities where they know their money is having the greatest possible impact.
Dame Stephanie Shirley
UK Ambassador for Philanthropy 2009 - 2010